Published: October 18, 2009 06:53 pm      

Officials to meet Monday on TX 121

Officials from various agencies plan to discuss the status of the Texas 121 project Monday in Cleburne.

The meeting will be held in Room 201 of the Johnson County Courthouse.

State Sen. Kip Averitt, R-McGregor, organized the meeting. Officials invited to attend include state Rep. Rob Orr, R-Burleson; Johnson County Judge Roger Harmon; members of the Johnson County Commissioners Court; Cleburne Mayor Ted Reynolds; Joshua Mayor Merle Breitenstein; and officials from the North Texas Tollway Authority and the Texas Department of Transportation.

A representative from the office of U.S. Rep. Chet Edwards, D-Waco, is also scheduled to attend.

Plans call for extending Texas 121 from its current location in Fort Worth through Tarrant County into Johnson County, terminating at U.S. 67 in Cleburne.

Earlier this year officials announced plans to build interchanges related to the project in Fort Worth and Cleburne.

Federal stimulus money awarded will fund both projects, which are expected to begin construction early next year.

TxDOT officials also announced plans to make improvements to segments of U.S. 67 in Cleburne. Work on that project is also scheduled to begin early next year.

Local officials recently expressed concern and frustration over the project, based on NTTA’s failure to declare its intention to construct the connecting roadway.

A decision on the matter is forthcoming, NTTA Executive Director Allen Clemson said during a recent commissioners court meeting.

Clemson said NTTA remains committed to the project, and he would be surprised if NTTA doesn’t “have a decision, a clear path, on this by the end of the year or early next year.”

Clemson declined to declare or predict a date when that decision would be made.

Averitt said he organized Monday’s meeting with the goal of bringing all the players in the project to the table so everyone can be on the same page and work toward realizing the project.

The meeting was initially planned as a private affair with a press conference scheduled afterward but was subsequently declared open to the public.

A decision by Averitt on Thursday to invite county commissioners necessitated declaring the meeting open because a quorum of a governmental entity is scheduled to be present.